Vertical takeoff and landing (“VTOL”) and cruise efficiency are diametrically opposed requirements for aircraft. There are system solutions today that require ground infrastructure, namely catapults and arresting equipment, to launch and recover cruise efficient aircraft, thereby imparting these aircraft with VTOL like capabilities. These current multi-part systems remove the need for the actual aircraft to perform VTOL, but the system as a whole (i.e., aircraft plus ground infrastructure) becomes a VTOL system. With these current systems it is not possible to meet both VTOL and cruise efficiency requirements without the use of ground infrastructure.